IF YOU GO

The eerie and inviting dune field, in the middle of White Sands Missile Range, was created by
the area’s unique geography and topography.

GETTING THERE

White Sands is about 15 miles from the town of Alamogordo, N.M., 1,500 miles southwest of
Columbus. Commercial airports in Las Cruces, N.M., and El Paso, Texas, are within easy driving
distance.

VISITING THE MONUMENT

White Sands offers ranger-guided activities including nature walks, full-moon walks and star
talks. The park’s scenic drive is open every day except Christmas from 7 a.m. to sunset. For more
information, call 575-679-2599 or visit
www.nps.gov.whsa.

LEARNING MORE

For more travelers’ information about the area, call the Alamogordo Chamber of Commerce at
1-800-826-0294 or visit
www.alamogordo.com.

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ALAMOGORDO, N.M. — The sight seemed very familiar until I bent down and plunged my hand into what looked for all the world like a great snowdrift along a scenic drive.

But the drift was warm, powdery and soft — in no danger of melting come spring or, in fact, ever.

I was at White Sands National Monument, a preserve located in the world’s largest gypsum-sand dune field, 275 square miles of otherworldly, ever-changing wind-blown panoramas. (The next largest such gypsum- dune field, in Mexico, is just one-tenth the size.)

The surrounding 4,000-square-mile White Sands Missile Range and Holloman Air Force Base further protect the national monument — from everything except, perhaps, missiles.

White Sands lies at the bottom of the Tularosa Basin formed by the surrounding San Andres and Sacramento mountains. Water flowing into the basin has no exit path. Instead, it slowly sinks into the ground, leaving behind crystalline gypsum, which erodes into powdery white sand that is blown by desert winds into huge, shifting dunes up to 60 feet high.

A visit begins at the welcome center, which contains a small museum with information about the history and geology of the area. The best feature of the adobe structure, however, might be the great gift shop. Visitors will find beautiful turquoise and silver jewelry, pottery, carvings and other crafts handmade by area Native American artists.

The gift shop is also where visitors can rent a saucer sled to ride. Yes, the gypsum dunes resemble snow in this important way, too.

The park’s 13-mile scenic drive offers plenty of places to pull to the side, find the highest dune you can and slide down.

Despite waxing my sled, I never quite got the hang of it, tending to get stuck on the way down. (I later learned that one trick is to slide the same path over and over, smoothing it further each time and making for a more slippery and faster ride.)

Instead, I simply did barrel rolls down my dune, invariable laughing like a kid (some might say like a maniac) each time I reached the bottom.

If there’s an ounce of frolic left in you, White Sands will probably bring it out.

There’s something mesmerizing, almost intoxicating — perhaps even sensual — about the sands, as if they cry out for contact. And despite the desert’s blazing sun, the gypsum sand, unlike quartz sand, seldom gets uncomfortably hot.

As much as I enjoyed rolling around in what might be the world’s largest, softest sandbox, I found that an old-fashioned hike could be just as satisfying. White Sands offers several trails of varying difficulty. But be sure to carry water. (The welcome center has refill stations for your bottles.)

Those who take the 5-mile Alkali Flat Trail should be sure to sign the log book at the check-in kiosk. You don’t want to take your re-enactment of Lawrence of Arabia too far. It’s easy to get lost at White Sands; each year rangers rescue hikers who have become disoriented in the vast sea of whiteness.

In such a sea, hiking solo, even over the easier, well-marked trails, can give one an eerie feeling. With no one else in sight and with a view across miles of dunes out to the mountains that surround the Tularosa Basin, I felt a bit like a lone Froot Loop in God’s own breakfast bowl.

The daily ranger-led walk at sunset was much less lonesome — and more informative. I marveled that many of the hikers seemed intent on making the walk sans shoes. But when I noticed that the ranger, too, had kicked off her shoes and socks, I decided to join the legion of the barefoot.

I was happy I did. The sand was almost indescribably soft and supportive, and, even at the end of a long, hot day, seemed the perfect temperature for tender piggies. It was as if Mother Nature had agreed to give me a foot massage and pedicure, all in one.

As the sun went down behind the San Andres Mountains, the surrounding whiteness took on magenta and rose hues, casting an even deeper spell.

The unexpected boom of an Air Force plane going supersonic overhead can be quite a jolt when you’re out among the stillness of the dunes. But it is a sudden reminder that southern New Mexico also offers great attractions for space and military buffs.

White Sands Missile Range, between the national monument and the city of Las Cruces, has a museum and a terrific “missile park,” with examples of most of the rockets used by the military since World War II.

One of the best preserved examples of a German V-2 rocket, which terrorized Allied cities during the war and helped launch the Space Age after.

This particular V-2, which has its own display building, was built to be fired on Antwerp, Belgium. Fortunately, the war ended before it could be used, and the missile was brought to White Sands (along with many German missile scientists).

The New Mexico Museum of Space History in Alamogordo is also worth a visit.

But the best surprise for this space buff was the National Solar Observatory, located on a cool, forested mountaintop far above White Sands. The observatory visitors center offered some terrific exhibits about the sun, solar energy and the physics of light.

And the view from the observatory down to the vast magnificent whiteness of White Sands was nothing short of magnificent itself.